Castaway critters rafted to U.S. shores aboard Japan tsunami debris
Close to 300 living marine species traveled on debris from the 2011 tsunami
By
Mariah Quintanilla
3:19pm, September 28, 2017
The 2011 tsunami that devastated Japan’s coast cast an enormous amount of debris out to sea — way out. Japanese marine life took advantage of the new floating real estate and booked a one-way trip to America. From 2012 to 2017, at least 289 living Japanese marine species washed up on the shores of North America and Hawaii, hitching rides on fishing boats, docks, buoys, crates and other nonbiodegradable objects, a team of U.S. researchers report in the Sept. 29 Science.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/castaway-critters-rafted-us-shores-aboard-japan-tsunami-debris
